Category: Film Focus
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An Open Safe: Inception’s Visual Iconography
“…a visual icon is probably the most resonant example of how you imbue experience, memory and emotion into an object” —Christopher Nolan Nolan makes some very interesting iconic choices in Inception. Let’s explore a few: Elevators Who knew an elevator could be so cinematic? We first see it used as a device through which Cobb… Read more
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Genre Bending
Look hard enough and you can find any number of differing opinions as to how many plots, themes, genres, etc. there actually are in cinematic fiction. Most films tend to belong to one genre, though Read more
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Architects for Soldiers
“The only job that was ever of interest to me other than filmmaking is architecture.” —Christopher Nolan Read more
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Wrap-up It’s been a fantastic Halloween month. I hope you enjoyed the daily selection of films chosen for this years fright film fest. Below is a listing of all the films highlighted this year. I hope you had a Happy Halloween! Oct. 1 Scream Oct. 2 Night of the Living Dead Oct. 3 The Exorcist… Read more
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31 Nights, 31 Frights: Halloween
Alfred Hitchcock may have invented the slasher film with Psycho but John Carpenter transformed it into its own sub-genre. Virtually every horror film that followed owes its conception to this perennial holiday darling. Michael Myers has become the quintessential Halloween boogeyman and cemented his place among the throng of horror movie monsters who cannot-be-killed. Read more
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31 Nights, 31 Frights: The Crow
What better film for Devil’s Night than one that uses it as a backdrop from which to unfold its tale? Though it has unfortunately been overshadowed by Brandon Lee’s untimely death, this atmospheric actioner has gained cult status over the years for director Alex Proyas’ visionary take on the graphic novel. Read more
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31 Nights, 31 Frights: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
An absolute must for repeated viewing all month long. It begins with a comically gruesome prologue featuring Linus watching in stunned horror as older sister Lucy guts a freshly picked pumpkin, to a wonderfully spooky opening credits sequence, which has the sheeted Peanuts gang running back and forth across an abstract background from flying witches,… Read more
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31 Nights, 31 Frights: The Innocents
If The Haunting is the granddaddy of all haunted house movies, this is its godmother, the ultimate ghost story. Rather faithfully adapted from Henry James’ novella, The Turn of the Screw, director Jack Clayton and cinematographer Freddie Francis photograph the grounds of Bly — the grand estate wherein the film takes place — in deep… Read more
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31 Nights, 31 Frights: Dracula
As iconic as Bela Lugosi’s performance is, Tod Browning’s Dracula is a rather drab affair, unimproved by Philip Glass’s post hoc score. Hammer Studios bloodier Draculas were an atmospheric improvement but they veered much too far from the source material. John Badham’s late-70s update falls somewhere in between. Read more
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31 Nights, 31 Frights: The Thing
After the successes of Halloween and Escape from New York, Director John Carpenter took a risk in remaking one of the most popular science-fiction films of the 50s. Though he used elements from Howard Hawks’ classic version, he drew most of his inspiration from John W. Campbell, Jr.’s novella Who Goes There? In the process,… Read more